Tag: methodology
Rethinking and shifting discourses and practice of “testing”: From accuracy to engagement with situated contexts
The chapter presents a reflective analysis of the discourse and practices regarding the written test in three coordinated introductory/intermediate language programs (French, German, and Spanish) at a large public university. Written tests that students complete in class are specifically targeted because this type of assessment tends to reflect traditional ideologies and practices, focused on measuring accuracy and declarative knowledge, at odds with calls for teaching (and assessing) language and culture as integrated and situated practices (Kramsch, 2014; MLA, 2007; National Standards, 2015). This chapter examines how the collective imagined conceptualizations of paper-based written tests affect discourse, design, and Graduate Teaching Assistants’ (GTAs) professional development. The analysis starts by considering the terminology used in each program, as it conveys specific ideologies about testing. To evaluate how successful the programs’ written tests are in reflecting the pedagogical approach, their role and position are examined, followed by a comparative analysis of three recent tests. The contribution then goes on to describe the current procedures for written test development and offers both a reflection of challenges encountered and possibilities for written tests in coordinated language programs going forward. The chapter concludes with general recommendations to engage into a rethinking and reframing of what testing language in the classroom means.
Modality in experimental code-switching research: Aural versus written stimuli
Various methodological concerns are specific to code-switching research; however, the modality of experimental stimuli has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This study explicitly tests if the mode of presentation does in fact affect participants’ judgments in Spanish-English code-switching using two different syntactic phenomena: (i) pronouns and lexical DPs, and (ii) wh-movement. The results are parallel, but not identical for the two modalities. We found no difference on a global level, indicating that written code-switched stimuli do not produce depressed ratings. We found a few individual differences when looking at specific structures within the two phenomena. In those cases, the aural condition enhanced the ratings of more acceptable sentences. Crucially, these differences did not affect the interpretation of the results.
doi:10.1075/ihll.19.06kor
Methodological considerations for code-switching research: Language mixing as input during childhood
Monolingual data as a foundation for analyzing code-switching data
Co-authored article published in Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
Among methodological concerns specific to code-switching (CS) research is the design of the target stimuli used in experiments with an acceptability judgment task. We argue here that research which makes use of CS data of this type must also incorporate monolingual stimuli into the experimental design, specifically monolingual stimuli judged by the same bilingual participants who judge the code-switched stimuli. We do so by reviewing two sets of experimental CS data we collected and exploring the role that monolingual stimuli can play in the analysis of that data. In each experiment, an analysis based solely on acceptability judgments of the CS stimuli leads to one interpretation, while incorporation of results from the monolingual stimuli leads to a distinct interpretation. We show that it is the interpretation integrating the monolingual acceptability judgments which is more valid, thereby arguing for the value of monolingual stimuli in design and analysis.
doi:10.1075/lab.16007.ebe
Methods in code-switching research: The value of monolingual judgments
Modality in code-switching research: Evidence from Spanish/English acceptability judgment tasks
Methods in code-switching research: When does modality matter?
Methodological considerations in code-switching research
Co-authored article published in Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics.
This article addresses methodological concerns in research on grammatical aspects of code-switching. Data from code-switching have the potential for a unique contribution to linguistics by giving us access to combinations of linguistic features that may be difficult (or impossible) to observe in monolingual data. Nonetheless, the use of code-switching data for linguistic inquiry is not without issues. In this paper, we focus on three methodological questions specific to code-switching research: (i) project design, (ii) experimental procedure and (iii) participant selection. Drawing on experimental data from both published works and in-progress projects, we highlight potential solutions to each methodological challenge, concluding that several solutions are often required to mitigate the impact of confounding variables. In line with previous work (e.g. Grosjean 1998, Gullberg, Indefrey & Muysken 2009), we suggest that researchers clearly report on their methodology. Our overall goal is to contribute to a dialogue on best practices in code-switching research.
doi:10.1515/shll-2013-1143
Bryan Koronkiewicz 